Pedal Your Way to Sustainable Style: Dutch Roetz Bikes Upcycles Old Bicycles into Designer Bikes

Welcome to the world of sustainable cycling where Dutch Roetz Bikes transforms old bicycles into stunning designer masterpieces!

Every year, over 1 million bikes are being discarded in the Netherlands. Roetz-Bikes turns them into beautifully handmade new bikes.

1 million bikes…

… are discarded yearly in the Netherlands. These bikes end up in the canals or dumped somewhere in the city. In Amsterdam alone, over 80.000 bikes are cleared each year.

All of these bikes, and the resources used to make them, would have gone to waste, if it wasn’t for Roetz-Bikes, taking them over and giving them new life.

Plenty of discarded bikes

Roetz-Bikes buys the old bikes that aren’t viable to be fixed anymore, and that would otherwise get destroyed. Often these bikes are collected by the government.

In the Roetz-Bikes factory in Amsterdam, the bikes are taken apart and the frame and the fork are always reused. Often, when, possible, other parts are reused as well. Every year the factory produces about 2500 to 3000 bikes. The bikes are all made by people who have difficulty finding a job for whatever reason. At Roetz-Bikes they try to educate the people in a way that they can get a job in the bicycle business afterwards.

Orphaned bikes are bought by Roetz-Bikes, who use the parts to turn them into new bikes. Source: BrightVibes

The Dutch Railway system as customer

On Roetz-Bikes’ website, you can pick out exactly how you’d like your bike. You can decide which color, which material, whether you’d like a bell or not, and how many gears you’d like. This gives you a bike that is custom-made to fit your specific desires! In the factory, the workers get a note with your specifications and then they go to work to build the bike of your dreams. It may seem costly, but it gives you a unique bike, made from existing materials, made by people who get a better chance at a job because of it.

Not only individuals are buying the Roetz-Bikes, but companies can buy them in larger shipments as well. The Dutch Railways are a customer as well. There’s a system where one can borrow a bike at the station to ride around in the city. More and more of these so-called ‘ov bikes’ are being recycled into new ov bikes; it exists for at least 70% of old parts!

Roetz-Bikes hopes to be able to recycle an increasingly larger part of the bikes and they hope many shops and factories will follow their lead, so the biking industry becomes a more circular industry.

At Roetz-Bikes you learn all sorts of aspects of making a bike. Employees gain an all-around knowledge of making bikes. Source: BrightVibes

Discover more inspiring stories about cycling and sustainability on BrightVibes by visiting our dedicated page on cycling.